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Monday, 14 October 2013

#CountryKids Sizergh Castle Woodland Play Trail

Regular readers will know that we are big fans of our nearest National Trust property Sizergh Castle. We have got our membership fee back just in trips here this year with special events and 50 Things challenges as well as using it as a base for walks. One thing it hadn't had was a play area for bigger kids. So when I heard about the new Woodland Play Trail I was keen to go try it out.

The first challenge was to find out where it was! Cunningly its all part of trail to discover how to get there. The children had to read the clue then follow directions:

The signs took us on a safe route in the car park passing the signs for the Great British Walk:

It was pretty obvious when we reached the actual start of the trail:

My children were so keen to check it all out I had difficulty getting them to slow down enough to get photographs. I was just in time to catch my son going through the tunnel:

Luckily grown ups don't have to crawl as they have kindly put in a Wussy Parent Route:

Once in the woodland itself there were more clues and challenges to follow:

The trickiest bit of the route came next and you had to use a rope to safely descend a slightly steeper slope:

Next up was a log path, as you can see my son wimped out and decided not to balance on it:

Maybe he had read the warning sign:

What was nice about the route was that I could see the children ahead of me without having to be right on top of them:

Walking on stumps seemed to prove harder than log walking as it slowed them down a little bit:

Some of the clues gave us a chance to look at interesting things (well I looked any way!):

Parts of the course were more simply constructed with these branch arches to pass through (some of these were quite low for an adult!):

The people building the course had gone to great lengths to put in things like this Branch House:

I bet the woodland will look even more superb in the spring when the flowers come out:

And the reward for getting to the end:

Of course we did have to climb back up the mini cliff to get back to the castle. The children made this look easy but I was burdened with handbag and camera:

All in all a fun way to spend time outdoors with the children and to get them active without too much effort on your part!